This is a video I created with image stills of the products, materials and gear used to create the Kefka Palazzo photoshoot.

The self portrait images are of my own creation as is the video, which was produced in After Effects and Camtasia Studio 8.

I needed to beef up my After Effects skills some because I need to use it for my portfolio class, so this seemed like a great time to try out some of the composition creation effects I have learned from videocopilot.com.

Opening Music is from Overclocked: Final_Fantasy_6_Cantata_for_Dancing_I_Mors_ego_sum_mortis_OC_ReMix

Since this series was fresh in my head, I decided to put together a BTS/Tut on the make-up behind it. So, here it goes:

1: The Start – The first thing is go into this with a clean and moisturized palette (aka face). I applied a cap since the wig was coming later and I wanted to keep my hair out of all the make-up that was about to go one.

2: Primer – I find it highly important to prime my face before doing make-up, but especially for photos because of the lighting and setting of the make-up. You don’t want to fill in and clone out pores if you don’t have to, so when I prime, I use a pore refiner and a shine minimizer under my beauty balm.

3: Blocking and Concealing – The next step is two-fold. First I did a mediocre job blocking my brows because I didn’t need them fully gone (because of all the black liner for the comic lines), but I did want them held down so they were easier to draw over. While I was blocking, I figured I would ally concealer and a BB that was 1-2 shades lighter to my face.

4: Setting the Base: If not one of the most important things to do when you finish the base is to set it with powder. Setting any “wet” make-up helps it last longer and keeps the shininess to a minimum. When you are under lights and moving around with the selfy, you want that make-up to stay as fresh looking as long as possible; otherwise, you spend more time in PS trying to fix hot spots and melty make-up, which is just time consuming and yucky!

5: Whose Line Is It Anyway? – Okay, the lines which started as outlines and then filled in with a combo of black liquid liner and black loose shadow and brow filler was the most time consuming part of all this. I decided to reference Lichtenstein’s crying girl piece right on my phone and mimicked many of the same lines, but added a few added contour lines to keep the feel intact since I am three-dimensional and the print was not. This was roughly an hour of application time since I wanted to draw on both eyes and sides of the face.

6: Adding Some Color Pop – After all the lines, this was quite possibly the easiest part, adding the color. I used a really bright Urban Decay matte purple shadow (the name escapes me at the moment) for the eyes, 3 different blue shadows for the tears, and a really intense red lip tar to make those pop as well. I went back through with a white liquid eye liner to create the fake highlights in the tears and the lip. Then I set the lips with a shine gloss.

7: Dots, Dots, and More Dots – Finally! I used a red hair and brow powder with a round tip brush and twisted the little red dots all over my face and neck. While tedious, this was not that difficult. It took me approximately 15 minutes to do.

8: The Final Product – With the addition of the red, s-curl wig, I was ready for my close up!

I hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes look at probably one of the most ambitious make-ups I have attempted EVER!

Stay tuned for more things to come in the way of my recreations and conceptual imagery! ♥